Ethnobotany of Borari-Arapiuns indigenous people, Amazon, Brazil
Patrícia Chaves de Oliveira and Jacqueline Braga
The indigenous people in the Amazon have a wealth of traditional knowledge about use and management of plant species. Considering these populations live on remote areas from health centers, the use of medicinal plants is many times is the unique alternative to survive in disturbed social environment. Whereas the reproduction of traditional knowledge for future generations should preserved, this project aimed to characterize the plants used by Borari indigenous people from Novo Lugar Village, Santarém City, Pará State, Brazil. The methodology characterized for been conducted semi-structured interviews in order to obtain the relative frequency of quotes (RFQ) and the use value (UV). To determine the main therapeutic indication was used fidelity level (FL) and Rank Order Priority (ROP). The results showed 90 species useful from indigenous community; among the plants with higher RFQ are arruda (Ruta graveolens), buriti (Mauritia flexuosa), cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) and goiaba (Psidium guajava). The species with the highest UV were Inga heterophylla and Carapa guianenses. Diseases like stomachache; coughs, influenza and diarrhea could treated with these species and therefore, should be as priority in management and conservation programs to protect the health and survival of indigenous people in the Arapiuns region, Amazon.